Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/89

Rh children had aged and wearied me. My youth has gone unsatisfied, and I am old—old, and tired of it all."

The boy, full of affection, wound his arms about her.

"I shall work for you, mother. Indeed, indeed, I never mean to neglect my work; and I will strive so hard, and in a few years I shall have you dressed in silk, and none shall be as beautiful as my mother."

The woman dried her tears and kissed him on the forehead. "You are a dear fool," she said; "I cannot help loving you."

When the lad rose in the morning he left his dreams upon his pillow. By the post there came a letter offering him, for his father’s sake, a small clerkship. He bent the note and threw it so it flew like a bird into his mother's lap.

"Good fortune flies to you," he said; "did I not tell you I should succeed?" He looked round the table at the rosy, fat faces of his brothers and sisters. "Ladies and gentlemen, please order your bonnets and cigars, and money is no object."

As he went out towards the city he stood by the river where he had played as a child years